Wired In Recovery Support group

I've had a brilliant day of travelling around treatment providers in Cardiff giving a talk to let people know about the new support group we're setting up. The response I got was very encouraging from everywhere I went, although I got drenched while cycling around!

We had our first group last Wednesday, to which the turnout was great for a first group, a whole 4 people! It's going to be happening once a week from now on and is going to consist of a meeting in which participants will discuss their recovery and what's happening from day to day for them. There will be positive feedback encouraged as it's essentially a peer-support group, run by those in recovery, for those in recovery. After that there will be a chill out time for people to get to know each other over a cuppa and a game of pool. 

Well I didn't publish this straight away so it's a couple of days later now and we've had another group since writing this. I've been blown away by the response that I have received from people while telling them about this group. It's so encouraging to be told by people in recovery that they would like to attend this group. I've even had staff members from treatment providers I've visited asking if they can volunteer- it's been an amazing experience!!

I'm going to keep you all posted on how things go.

No smoking!!!

It's now well into the second week and my mission to stop smoking is continuing. Apart from a lapse on the weekend of half a ciggie, (bloody awful that it was!) everything is going well. I even stopped using the patches after a couple of days as I didn't really think they were necessary for me.

As for cravings, they only seem to bother me in the evenings after I've had my dinner and I'm relaxing on the sofa. But what I've found is that as long as I distract myself initially, by thinking or doing something else, the cravings don't last long and are easily managed. Physically I don't feel any different at all, not worse or better and I certainly haven't had any physical withdrawals!

Mentally though I'm feeling a whole lot better. I've finally conquered the fags! Hopefully no lung cancer or the like for me! My mental outlook changed after I had that lapse on the week end. It tasted awful and after that I realised that I don't want to smoke. It's been plain sailing since then. 

If you smoke and are considering giving up my advice would be to go for it. I didn't find it as hard as I thought I would and the same may apply to you!

Nicotine free!!

Well I'm into my second day 'nicotine free' and it's a lot easier than I expected, I'm glad to say! Stopping smoking has been on my mind for some time now and the crunch point came on Sunday evening when my stockpiled tobacco had run out and I needed to buy more. Yes that's right, my decision had nothing to do with the health implications of smoking but rather the dent in my wallet.

I whacked a patch on halfway through yesterday, courtesy of my GP ( but which had sat in my kitchen drawer for over 6 months!) It made me feel a little dizzy at first but then it did it's job just fine. I might be talking a little too soon but I've not experienced any major cravings so far! Last night was the only time I found hard. I'd just had dinner and was relaxing on the sofa when the craving came, but, thankfully it didn't last long and wasn't too much to handle.

I'd always thought I could give up the fags if I'd wanted to and I'm starting to feel that I was right in thinking that! The thing is, I've never wanted to before, so I've never tried! There's been a bit of a discussion progressing on the comment board of one of the films on our You Tube channel - Wired In Recovery, on whether nicotine or heroin is harder to get off! Check it out.

At this early stage, I'd say that heroin was a lot tougher to kick!

Heroin addicted elephant is out of rehab

The bull elephant, named Xiguang or Big Brother, has finally finished his 3 year detox program, based on a tropical Island.

He had been force-fed heroin laced bananas by his captors, who were illegal traders based in China, so they would be able to control him. When these captors were arrested in 2005, Big Brother went into 'care' but initial attempts to detox him proved too dangerous as 'even iron chains could not contain him', the Chiana daily newspaper reported.

After this first, failed attempt he was transported to Hainan to start his medicated detox. Here he was given methadone injections at a dosage of 5 times the usual human dose. After a year the frequency of these injections was gradually reduced, at a very slow rate to minimise his discomfort. He was also treated to bathing and massage treatments as part of his detox program. 

Since finishing his program he has been relocated to a new home in the mainland city of Kunming, the capital city of his home province, Yunnan.  

I read this story in the Cardiff Metro newspaper on 5/09/08 and at first it seemed very sad, upseting me greatly. An elephant that couldn't have fully realised what was going on, was put through the hell of living with addiction and withdrawal. On thinking about it further though, it then occured to me that during his detox this elephant had received better treatment than most of the people I know who struggle with substance misuse problems - A holistic detox program which included substitute prescribing in a reduction plan, with massage and hot baths to boot, and to top it off, an aftercare program which included re-housing!

If only the treatment services for human beings were so caring and thorough in the delivery of their service. 

August weather

Well what a terrible summer we've had! I was travelling home from work a week or so ago when it was absolutely tipping it down. I noticed that as we were sitting in traffic and the rain had built up on the windscreen creating what I thought was an interesting effect. So I whiped my camera out and grabbed a photo.

I first got into photography about 15 years ago but haven't really taken any photo's for the past 10 years. I've recently purchased a new camera and I'm really enjoying taking pictures again!

Outside the law?

I read with interest an newspaper article from around a month ago which highlighted the arrest of Hans and Eve Rausing for drugs offences after she was caught trying to smuggle heroin and crack into a function at the American embassy in London. When police searched the couples home in an exclusive part of Chelsea, they found more crack and heroin and nearly £2000 worth of cocaine. Hans is a heir to the multi-billion pound Tetra Pak drinks carton empire and Eve is the daughter of a Pepsi-Cola executive.

But none of this so far is very unusual, well ok, getting caught with class A drugs whilst trying to get into a party at the American Embassy has never happened to me but it's what I read next that bothered me. At a hearing at Westminster Magistrates it was announced that all charges are to be dropped. Yes, dropped! They are to receive conditional cautions. Exactly what this means I'm not sure but it's probable that they will have to attend some kind drug misuse programmes.

Why, just because they're well known socialites, should they be treated any differently? How can the Crown Prosecution Service justify treating this case differently to any other drug possession case? 

What gets me the most about this isn't the fact that they've been 'let off' but that this course of action isn't normally used. Surely it's better to offer the opportunity of good treatment options to those with substance misuse issues? We all know that throwing people in jail doesn't 'cure' addiction! It's obvious from this that when it's one of the middle/upper classes own that's been caught with drugs and admitted they have an addiction; they're treated a lot differently to the working class addict.

If this course of action is the right one for this kind of case why isn't it the course of action taken that is normally taken?

Addiction shouldn't be treated as a criminal issue. It's a health and social issue and therefore the answers to it will come from the health and social field.